If you use twitter, you’ll know to use an URL shortener service to reduce your character count to keep under twitter’s 140 character limit. Most people use one of the many shortener services such at bit.ly.

Google has recently opened up it’s URL shortener service to the public. Previously, it was limited to its own services such as Google Docs. To start, simply go to http://goo.gl. Enter the URL you want to shorten and click the Shorten button.

Google will generate a URL with the form: http://goo.gl/xxxxx where xxxxx is a unique identifier. If you sign in with your Google account, you’ll also get special tracking services and a custom QR code.

As an added bonus, any math wiz out there that can figure out the number of unique URLs that Google can generate with this new format. It looks like it uses numbers, lower, and upper case letters.

I gave a shot at exercising the right side of my brain this year for Halloween. I carved this free hand.

Peter Lawrence on bringing design to the business world – Fast Company

Change management is a structured approach to transitioning individuals and organizations from a current state to a future state. Apple has mastered this concept that so many managers and organizations have failed to do. Unlike many other companies, Apple has managed to build a following of users, introduced new concepts and new technologies, and have gained nearly complete adoption of changes.

Introduce new features slowly

Apple follows their own release cycle. They don’t release any feature or function pre-maturely just to beat out their competition or to catch up with the industry. Apple isn’t a perfect company and they do make mistakes. However, in general, they release features only when they are ready. For example, when the first iPhone was released, the App Store was not yet a function. They wanted a fully tested environment before releasing it to the general users.

Updates and changes happen often, couple times a year. Unlike Windows where version releases take years, Apple’s iOS changes functions often but slightly. Since 2007, the iOS system has not undergone any major upgrades.

Not being caught up in fads

When their competitors were releasing larger screens, all types of functionality, all in one devices with everything including the kitchen sink, Apple was releasing features slowly. Apple released 3G when it was ready. Apple still refuses to release a larger screen while everyone else is rushing out to have the biggest screens. Apple doesn’t claim to have 8 megapixel cameras when it knows that average users don’t even use all those pixels. Apple builds systems for the general population, not niche groups.

Making design and user experience a priority

The iOS has grown slowly from version 1.0 to the current version 4.0. Each release include very subtle and very minute changes. As users adopt the system, Apple is slowly introducing the users to a common system that works across all its devices: iPods, iPhones, Apple TV, and soon Macs.

Notice how these devices don’t come with extensive user manuals. It doesn’t require instructions. A well designed operating system and applications should be so intuitive that a user can pick it up and simply use it.

Call to action

How can we use these lessons learned to improve our work? How can we use Apple change management techniques to influence change in our work, our customers, and our employees?

photo credit: AForestFrolic

Many people are annoyed with me when I try everything possible to avoid celebrating my birthday. I usually try to be traveling for work, out of town, or disappear for the day. Here are a random list of reasons why I don’t celebrate birthdays.

1. It’s just an arbitrary day.
2. It’s an arbitrary unit based on a calendar that’s based on the Earth’s rotation round the Sun.
3. I’m no different on my birthday than the day before or the day after.
4. Decades aren’t a good measure of milestone.
5. There’s too many birthdays. Many places I work at celebrate birthdays weekly.
6. It’s a commercial industry of cards, gifts, and celebration.
7. I don’t get toys anymore.
8. It’s never on a convenient day.
9. I’m getting older.
10. I just don’t want to okay.

In a recent trip, I decided to go sans laptop. Instead, I kept my home computer on and used Logmein for remote access in case I needed to access any work or personal related files. I downloaded a copy of Keynote and Pages a la the Apple iWorks apps. Aside from a few stares as I type in the iPad, this was a very productive trip.

As I switch to using remote access, I find myself trying to “touch” elements of the screen instead of using the mouse. Touch interfaces is the future and using a mouse seems so last century. As for typing, I’m not as fast on this touch keyboard as my regular keyboard (30 wpm vs. 60 wpm). This seems like an easy fix with just some practice. I even downloaded a typing app to do so.

There are bits of the touch interface that will take some getting use to. First, you have to trust the intelligent system. Unlike a physical keyboard, you don’t always have to type the words perfectly. The system corrects itself. Secondly, there’s no need to enter a period, just double space. Finally, you don’t hold down the shift button; that will take some getting use to.

As I finish up this post, I find myself wondering if I can get away with an iPad and remote into a home desktop, say a Mac Mini. Why run a full operating system that takes forever to boot up. I also enjoy the 10 hours of battery life, instant boot up, and saving my back from lugging all the weight around.

Should Apple build a touch tablet with a physical keyboard? I sure hope so. The iOS is more than enough for my regular work but I need to be able to type faster. There are third party cases with built keyboards but I’m looking for a native solution.

Megabytes, kilobytes, and gigabytes are commonly used terms of data today. Digital data is stored in 1’s and 0’s. Therefore, a 1 is a 1 and a 0 is a 0 and each takes up equally the same space and resource to process, store, and transmit. That is, unless you’re AT&T. In the table below, AT&T charges different rates for different plans. You can get 200 MB of data for $15, or 2 GB of data for $25. But notice that there’s an enterprise plan (for companies) and a tethering plan (for connecting to another device like a laptop).

Isn’t 2 GB of data just 2 GB of data? Not according to AT&T.

For consistency sake, lets look at the 2 GB monthly data options

1. $25 for 2 GB of data for personal use
2. $40 for 2 GB of data for enterprise use
3. $45 for 2 GB of data for personal use with tethering
4. $60 for 2 GB of data for enterprise use with tethering

The differences between these two options are (1) whether it’s for personal use or company use, and (2) whether you tether or not. The one constant factor is that you’re paying differently for the same 2 GB of data. In theory, personal users will use less data than an enterprise user (not connected to a corporate network and downloading company emails). I think personal users who listen to Pandora and download YouTube videos use up more data. Secondly, people who tether use more data. Again, it’s possible that by hooking your phone up to a laptop, you’re using more data.

I suspect AT&T does this because they’re assuming that you’re not going to use all your data, hence no rollover data plans. As a personal user who pays for the 2 GB plan, I use about 400 MB a month. If all subscribers, on average, use half of the data and leave the rest unused, AT&T only needs to build a network to support half saving on the expense side. This is comparable to a buffet restaurant hoping that on average, people don’t eat that much. This is also similar to the airline industry where they hope that a percentage of people don’t show up for the flight.

What should be done

If AT&T wants to better serve its customers, it should create tiered data plans where data is considered data no matter how its used. Customers should be paying for the data they use, regardless of what mechanisms they use to transmit that data.